


Catharsis

by st_ivalice



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 08:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8243435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/st_ivalice/pseuds/st_ivalice
Summary: After Geosenge, Serena deals with the aftermath.





	

"Home," she whispered, and Charizard pounded its wings and pushed off the earth.

Strange as it was to have only lived in it for a month, the house in Vaniville was home; the safest place she could be. The person who lived there; there was no other person she knew who loved a Pokemon more.

"Mom," she cried, rushing through the front door. Despite not seeing her in a week, her mother, like all mothers, knew that her child was not right and embraced her.

Her mother kissed her debris filled hair. "What happened?"

"He was going to kill Pokemon. All of them."

"Who?" her mother nearly demanded, and Serena told her everything; Lysandre, the weapon, and the selfish ultimatum.

The history of three thousand years and of the last several hours relived in their kitchen until she was left clinging to her mother for support, all energy--the precious amount she had fought hard to save--was spent.

"Oh Serena," Grace said after the silence. "You did a good thing. You did the  _best_  thing."

"Then why do I still feel like this?" she keened."Like he _won_. All those stones, all his words...they're still with me." She thought of AZ's grief, of Professor Sycamore's, and the burn in her chest swelled.

Her mother sighed. "Sometimes the best thing, doesn't always feel like the right thing. Even when it does, it doesn't erase everything that came before it. And sometimes, that changes a person. That's just- that's life, honey." She pulled back to look her head on. "I know you're older than most kids who start training, you're a young woman already, but  _this_. This is not a burden any person should ever carry, but you do now, and it's your decision how you want to carry it."

Serena nodded. She would not be like AZ; broken, wandering. She shivered when she realized how close she was to sharing his fate, his unending lifetime of sorrow.

"Why don't you go get cleaned up and spend time with your Pokemon. It was your bond with them that saved them. It's what makes you strong, and it will be what helps you heal."

  
Her mother took her belongings while she went up the stairs to the bathroom. In the mirror she examined herself. Her face was weary, angular, all the smooth innocence of girlhood replaced with a lean hardness. It was the traveling and battling, she knew, that had carved her body, but how would Geosenge show its history on her? Wrinkles from the tepid bath water? The ache she felt in her bones as she put on her clothes?

Brer was curled up on her bed, freed by her mother. When she took a spot beside him, he curled his tail around her, surrounding her with the cinnamon scent of a Braixen, but as her eyes drooped and she drifted to sleep, the scent of earth and aged stone lurked in her dreams.

* * *

She woke to darkness; a slow awakening to the familiarity of her room. She didn’t move, merely slid her eyes across the room as they adjusted. The full moon was high in the night sky, the only light which she could see by as it poured through the window. Serena watched the flecks of dust through the beam as if suspended by the shine of the moon. Even when she drew a deep breath and released it into the silence, the particles remained still, and the inertia returned the thought of the stones and the Pokemon lying forever underneath them, life stolen from them in the most violent of ways.

She rolled into Brer’s tail. What a terrible weapon, what a terrible death. Lysandre would have done it again, for himself, for his followers, for _her_ , because of the _power_ she held. She felt sick. Even at the very end when his dream was collapsing, his life about to end, he called for her immortality. Did he see something in her? Something like himself, like AZ, whose blood flowed in his veins. And Xerneas? The pokemon of myth and legend had bowed to her.

She _had_ power, then.

The revelation was as humbling as it was enlightening, and it frightened her. Power had driven Kalos to war, had driven AZ to end it so mercilessly, and driven Lysandre to pursue his dream. What was driving her?

Suddenly the moonlight was too bright, too harsh, and she closed her eyes again.

Serena prepared for sleep, her weariness returned. She pressed her face further into Brer’s tail to shield her eyes. He must have moved it because the light grew, even beyond her shut eyelids. She thought he had shifted his tail, but she still felt its weight on her. An eyelid slid open to check, and she saw on the floor the silhouette of a great crown of horns. 

It was Xerneas.

She bolted up, looking to the window. The great Pokemon was on the other side of the glass, antlers casting light brighter than the moon. It blinked once and glided down to the cobblestone of her front yard. Serena got out of bed as gently as she could, grateful that Brer did not stir, and dressed quickly before heading down.

The house was dark, save for the lamp at the foot of the stairs. Xerneas was waiting in the middle of the path, beside Ryhorn sleeping. As she approached, he--or was it she?--watched on with a piercing gaze, different than the proud attention when it looked on her for the first time below the Weapon. When she was near enough to touch him, which she had never done, he knelt, as if he were Ryhorn, Mamoswine, or Skiddo.

Serena took the humble action as a command. This magnificent creature, giver of life, was granting her permission to mount it, and she did. Xerneas did not rustle under her touch. Her fingers slipped into lush fur as thick and earthy as moss; a great ancient scent emerged. She knew how to mount a Pokemon, she was the daughter of a great rider, after all, but this was no race, no easy ride. Xerneas stood with the grace and sway of a tree in the wind, but she was unprepared and bounced upon its back, rigid. 

There was a gust that rustled the leaves as the Giver shook and snorted impatiently. She gripped tighter.

Xerneas walked them to the edge of the street, to the edge of the forest that surrounded Vaniville. With a great bounding leap, they rushed into the wood. She prepared to dodge and weave between the trees, but they pressed further, urgently. The deeper they went, the clearer their path became, although the sky above continued to disappear behind the canopy of trees. The forest was alive, leaves rustling with praise, branches bowing in reverence for its creator. It threatened to take her breath away. Her cheeks were blasted by the cool air rushing past and she clung harder until her face pressed into the great lichen of pelt.

The scent, the blurring forest, the steady pounding of hooves, it lulled her into a heady daze where time wavered. Geosenge was a lifetime away. Calem, Shauna, Lysandre, the Great King, they fought in a War that was tomorrow and yesterday. She saw every tomorrow. In one, in all, the king bowed to her in front of a city, and she commanded the Pokemon of legends; beasts and birds, golems and elements, destruction and creation. She ached for the sorrow and the splendor.

Xerneas halted, and her sight stopped.

Serena sat up, unnerved by the sudden silence, by the hush of the night and the stars as they appeared at a clearing. At every bit of earth a tree refused to grow upon sat a stone; thousands. They were at Geosenge. She was all at once overwhelmed with a swell of sadness and of anger. Why had they returned here? If she was owed anything for what she had done,if she _wanted_ anything, it would be to never lay eyes on these stones again. She _could_ not any more.

  
But Xerneas trotted in, bringing her to the center and the brilliance of his horns returned, shining, blinding. Her eyes were seared and she shut them forcefully until it receded.

In the adjustment, the dying afterimages, she saw a Houndoom in the corner of her eye, an Arcanine in the other. She froze, paralyzed at the realization she had left her Pokemon miles away. More appeared, Blastoise, Ampharos, Aerodactyl, Starmie; Pokemon that didn’t belong here, and she _knew_. They gleamed in the darkness, like silver, like moonlight.

Soon, every stone, as far as she could see, was alight. She wondered why she was made to see them. Was this her reward? Then Xerneas glowed once more, and the Pokemon moved toward her, surrounding her, increasing in lumosity until she was enveloped in light, and she felt a thousand deaths. A thousand lives, and a thousand loves. The love for their trainers still endured beyond their fates, beyond their time. She felt it strongest above everything, and she felt their gratitude; A brilliant overflowing warmth, filling her with joy and light and she closed her eyes.

* * *

 She woke in her bed. Sunlight filtered through the window, high and bright. Mid-day. Brer was still curled up above her pillow, but he was already awake, tail occasionally swishing in boredom. 

Serena turned to face him, hugging him as he moved to sit up when he saw she was awake as well.

"Thank-you." Brer was her first Pokemon, her longest friend. The few months they’ed been together could have been years.

The Braixen chirped, and she scratched under his chin.

There was a knock at the door, and her mom appeared. "How are you feeling?"

Serena sat up as well, testing the strength of her body and thought about yesterday. There was little soreness, but she felt changed; older. She would never forget what she'd learned of the past, what she perceived in the trees.

"Better," she answered, smiling. She glanced at her poke balls on her desk. Besides Brer’s, all were closed, including Xerneas.

"Good."

 

 


End file.
